Tom White on the air

August 27, 2010

Democrat Congressional candidate Tom White has his first TV spot up on YouTube, apparently ready to air next week. See it here:

The spot is pretty generic, bio/intro spot, frankly not that different from Lee Terry’s new spot. The tag line of “…Washington may not get it, but Nebraska does” is very similar to Terry’s “…we need some Nebraska common sense in Congress.“

It reminds me of one of those Food Network shows where two chefs are given the same ingredients, they come up with the same dish and at the end one chef says, “Did he just copy me?”

Anywho, one thing that cracked us up was, check the audio at about the :23 mark, where the fifteen people in the room are clapping. The overlaid audio is of a stadium of people whistling and cheering. Maybe tone that down just a touch, eh guys?

In any case, the Terry camp responded to this spot saying, White has supported the Democrats’ “massive federal stimulus bill and federal health care overhaul, while opposing during a special legislative session last year to balance the state’s budget a measure that froze state aid to schools.”

Oh well.

***

Congressman Lee Terry’s camp also released a statement regarding the recent report on economic indicators with hosing housing sales plummeting.

“The so-called stimulus program was supposed to jumpstart the economy, create jobs andkeep unemployment at eight percent. It has done none of these things. Yesterday’stroubling report on collapsing home sales should be a wake-up call to my opponent thathis policy of just throwing a Hail Mary of trillions more in spending and debt is not goingto solve the problem,” Terry said.

Terry also noted that a recent report by the Obama administration’s budget office now admits that the new healthcare program will not save any money through 2020 and actually increases the nation’s debt by another $51 billion over the next two years.

***

And on the 2nd District campaign front, it was recently announced that Terry and White have scheduled a second debate for October — the 19th at Bellevue University.

The first debate will be October 14th, noon, at the Omaha Press Club sponsored by the Press Club and League of Women Voters.

anon 9:10,Tom White was one of only 7 State Senators who voted against LB5 during the special session, his vote against it was a budget buster. Even the OWH said that the only way to Balance the Budget was to vote for LB5. Our politicians get elected to make tough choices and on that one vote, Tom White revealed the he is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Teachers Union. Plus he supports Obama’s Health care and the Stimulus…he really wants to balance the budget? All Tom White has ever shown when it comes to budgets is that he is for busting them.

Not to go off topic here, but is the Terry campaign going to bring up that failed safe haven law that White authored? If I recall, that piece of genius legislation made Nebraska the laughing stock of the nation for weeks. And he wants to be a Congressman? Yikes.

And the fact that Tom White's Speaker, Nancy Pelosi refuses to commit to a budget and allow it to be tied to her via a vote on the House floor says it all.

TW will tell everyone what a peach he is. He will talk about being a Conservative, and then turn around and refuse to vote for a balanced budget.

White wouldn't vote for a balanced budget when he had the chance in Nebraska, why would anyone believe him now?

White would vote for a liberal Speaker of the House that will refuse to offer a Budget Bill, let alone a balanced one. Hell, she wouldn't even promise to put only budgetary measures up for a vote after the elections.

White will treat his constituents with the same arrogance and temper that he has treated his opposition in the Legislature whether they be other State Senators or the people of Nebraska testifying in opposition to him on Bills.

BTW, has anyone every looked at his legislative district map? If it weren't for Memorial Park bordering Dodge Street, Tom White would literally be on the border of his mostly impoverished district.

I wonder how many times Tom White has ventured to 45th and Fort Street for a TownHall with his constituents. And I am not referring to when he meets a client to decide who he is going to sue next so he can do a little more remodeling on his home across the street from Memorial Park.

I predict Tom White will mop the floor with Lee Terry in any debate setting. Not because he has better ideas on policy but everyone know Lee isn't the most exciting speaker. However, it won't make much of a difference come Nov 2nd when White suffers the agony of defeat and Lee wins with a bigger margin that his last race against Esch.

Mr. Guy Next Door? Not hardly! Tom White grew up in a life of privilege with a very successful father.

When he talks about all the jobs he did to put himself through college and law school, does he ever talk about whether he actually had to pay for his own tuition, books, room and board, or was all that hard work just to $$$ for his hobbies?

Tom's stepped in it here. Everyone knows that the budget was balanced last fall in the special session as a result of LB 5. ($82 million by freezing state education aid.) White and the six other lib senators voted against it.

Anon at 10:32, name a dem policy that actually worked. Clinton's budget was only balanced because a Republican Congress sent him one to sign that was balanced. He didn't actually balance it; he just signed it.

On the other hand, Obama has demanded all kinds of spending and a compliant Democrat Congress has willingly obliged. Tom White has shown that he'd be another vote for any new spending Obama would desire.

Call me crazy, but I think White's daring Terry to go after him for that special session vote. That would localize the race, which is much better for White than talking about Obama and Pelosi and healthcare reform. It would give him a chance to grandstand on property tax relief (which he had a singleminded obsession with in the Unicameral).

Wow– anyone who thinks this is an honest ad knows nothing of Tom White. White described himself as the "left end" of the Legislature. Now, he's a non-partisan independent voice? Please. He's a big government, big spending union man– make no mistake.

Sure, both parties have contributed to the deficit, but the last $4 trillion was added by the Democrats without any republican help. Or was I only imagining the Dems criticism that the GOP was the party of No?

Word in Politico today is that the DCCC is so desperate to plug holes in the rapidly sinking SS Pelosi that they're going to start cutting off their weakest Congressional candidates.

I'd wager Tom White is right at the top of van Hollen's triage list. When you're trying to defend scores of embattled incumbents, mere challengers who aren't raising enough funds and aren't doing very much campaigning are going to be the first to feel the ax.

The other day I saw that the Scottsbluff Star Herald ran a straw poll for Governor. I was suprised to see that Meitser got 155 votes and that Heinman got 124. I know this was an unscientific poll. But still suprising.

GOP excuses. If Heinman had won big in the straw poll. You would have said here is more proof with Meister losing his home town. Heinman is going to win this fall. I would think. But not everyone loves him or thinks he is a good governor.

Tom White has a letter going around trying to raise money to put this ad on TV. Last I heard he needed $20,000 and only had raised about $10,000. It seems to me that Tom does not have enough money to put up ads this early. That will mean that he will not have enough money to take on Rep Terry late in the race.

11:17–that's a possibility. It happened to Nancy Thompson in 04–she was up on the air right after Labor Day but her $$$ dried up in late Oct–she went off the air for a week and Terry's campaign clocked her by doubling their buy.

I'd say both congressional candidates are comatose in comparison to the soap opera drama of the last week in city politics.

Oh goody. We can hear candidate loser Hal Daub deny any involvement in the recall of Mayor Suttle on KFAB Monday AM. They're going to need a front end loader to get his…baloney…out of their studio after he lets go.

I like this Brent Smoyer guy that's running for Lancaster County Board. On his websites it says The times of business as usual must come to an end. Lancaster County does not need more lifetime bureaucrats and politicians.I love how this guy basically states that all the Republicans on the county board are idiots and he's the change we need. Tea Party Forever!!

C'mon people. Who cares what ads these people are running. The real issue of the day is that the Omaha World Herald is not running wedding/engagement notices for homosexual couples. Now THAT's a news story.

It also appears that the Goober is about ready to announce a running mate. I still think that it will be a midget with a broom.

In other news, Cosmic Bob looks like he is going to return to Nebraska. It is unclear if his wife and family will be joining him. I mean, going from Manhattan to Ralston can be quite the transition.

I also wonder if E.Ben is getting worried that Bob wants his chair back. I also wonder if the Boy Attorney's hair is out of place a wee bit as he wipes his brow of a bead of sweat wondering if Bob has an eye on his old house in Lincoln that Jon wants to move into desperately.

White is misleading the very people he hopes to swoon. He will say all the right things, and try to cross examine Terry.

Just need a few youtube videos of tommy to show the voters the fraud he is. Either he comes out and supports the presidents agenda or he doesnt.

The people will see the different stories/bs white said in the legislature vs the campaign trail.

What tommmy and Ian are misreading in the people is the People are much smarter than treated. The basic flaw in the Liberal/Progressive ideology is the assumption the people are incabable of understanding and or of taking care of themselves. While it may be true that all people are not as formally educated as tommy they are not stupid. However, tommy will pander to the base, and like the lion trainor who gets bit for not ALWAYS Respecting the lion, tommy will get disposed of by the very people he is pandering to.

I understand that White thinks he has no money and can't afford to go on the air, but websites cost no money for him to write something about what he believes and what he hopes to accomplish and put it on there. What he's had on there is so vague and brief that it's really a joke. In addition, it costs only gas money for him to drive to a neighborhood and start knocking on doors. Make a phone call to KETV ahead of time so that they can cover the politician who wants the job so badly that he's willing to spend some shoe leather. Heck, maybe he could make the rounds of the other country club swimming pools. In other words, if he had any motivation, he could actually show people he wants the job. Matt Sakolosky at least showed up to places and all he raised was a measly 25 large. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars does White have stashed away? If I were one of his donors, I would be beating him like a rented mule for wasting my money.

Fro the record Matt Sak sat on his comfy campaign buns until final days before the primary. In the early days of his campaign he was jetting across the country making his dough through large sized hospitals buying his ware while investing little to nothing in his own campaign. When the fur hit the health care fan he was busy counting his loot while staying basically quiet last fall and well into December when the battle became heated.

You're right in your assessment of White. He needs to make more of an effort if he truly wants the job which it may be that he was simply drafted by the Dems hierarchy lead by Anne Boyle and company who seems to push when she feels it necessary then retreats to self-serving silence.

That really makes him look like he's running as an Independent, not as a slightly-less-extreme Pelosi-supporter (known to most political scientists as a "conservative Democrat). Hmmm… hiding from Obama? Is anybody running as an Obama Democrat?

Hal Daub made a good point on the KFAB morning show today. He said he's keeping his distance from this recall effort so that Suttle supporters can't say Daub just wants a redo of the '08 election. He said Suttle supporters can oppose the recall by defending Suttle's record rather than attacking Daub's intentions. My guess is the Suttle supporters will have an easier job attacking Daub and the people behind the recall than defending Suttle. Listen for their rhetoric and you will know whether they think they can defend Suttle or not.

Goobermeister Meistergoober is announcing his running mate this morning. Wonder who he picked. I hear it was a very selective process to ensure they picked just the right person. Prospective running mates had to, among other things, be able to fog a mirror. They also had to not be in jail. Finally, they had to be democrats. And, they had to be willing to throw away 2 months of their lives to be the second name on the ticket that was virtually certain to lose.

In the end, it appears they found just such a person. (Watch the presser to see if the selected person mouths words like "help me" or "I've been kidnapped."

Ha ha ha. Anne Boyle! Pile on to Lakers to get him tossed from the ticket, and then get on it yourself.

Stick, real slick. If Nebraska Democrats could invest just a small fraction of the machinations they use on each other against the GOP, well, they'd still lose, but elections would be more interesting.

Yikes! What a perfect running mate for Meister. Who else can unite all the D's in the Metro area? Shear stroke of genius with the pick. Heck with Mike at her side the campaign can focus on so many other things, and the recall effort in Omaha won't be on anybody's mind.

Picking Anne Boyle is a wonderful choice for Meister. Now maybe the media will pay a little attention to where the Boyles get their contributions and how they spend them. Anne doesn't have a problem taking money from the companies over whom the PUC has jurisdiction plus now her "expenses" might get some serious review. I just hope Meister has a food taster on staff. The one sure thing her choice brings is it will be a very dirty and nasty campaign.

I suspect the whole thing is nothing more than a ploy to make the Gov spend more money on his campaign, which will give him more of a reason to do more fund raising DUH, and to try to tarnish him.

BUT… now the Gov has a legit reason to raise LOTS of money, which he can then send to legislative races. Watch out Snow Plow, McGill, and Rogert! Of course Norm Wallman is in trouble too. All of you need to send a big wet kiss to the Goobster for helping to drive the Gov's race.

Nebraska Lawyer is right. The governor isn't making a threat, he is conveying the facts of life – there isn't enough money to pay for all of this. He is asking for the three largest education policy groups to help curb the increase Medicare will carve out of the budget, because it is obvious we can't pay for both. You can't cut bigger pieces of pie, and the pie can't get much larger until the economy starts growing much faster.

The math is pretty easy in a state like ours. Most of our state money is spent on the big three – public schools, the public colleges & universities, and Medicare. After the consultants gave the projections on how much Obamacare will cost the State of Nebraska to comply with, it only stands to reason that the education dollars have to be diverted. We can't shutter the courts or the prisons, and there isn't enough in any of the other state agencies to eliminate to keep K-12 funding whole AND increase the Obamacare funding. We couldn't raise taxes high enough to come up with the cash….the education pile is the only one that is big enough.

To all the CD2 voters that voted for Obama, I hope you have figured out that your property taxes will go up when the state can't continue to fund local education like it has.

"All politics is local" was the great Tip O'Neil quote that will play out here if this healthcare plan isn't changed, state aid to schools shifts to fund healthcare, and the property tax levy goes up to keep the teacher's raises going up.

And that is why our governor is reaching out to the teacher's union and the members of the administrator's association and school board association. They stand to lose the most when the taxpayers can't come up with the money.

Leavenworth Street is getting lame. You say you don't want hyperlinks, okay that's fine. You say you don't want obscene material, I get that. You say you want it relevant to Nebraksa politics, and I agree, there's plenty of blogs that cater to national politics.

Why exactly was my comment deleted that describes how much of an idiot Tom Dierks is and how Joe Kelley has a DWI? This is moving away from being a blog and is turning into a censored media. Believe me, this blog will be much less interesting without Democrat bloggers.

anon at 1:41, we're talking about politics and you are talking about a county attorney race? Sorry, but that's not really a political position.

Besides, Kelley's DUI of which you speak was not just a couple years ago. Closer to a decade ago. Longer ago than Sen. Bill Avery's DUI. About the same time, actually, as the first of Nantkes-Conrad's THREE DUI stops. The most recent of Sen. Snowplow's DUI's occurred, moreover, after she'd taken office, proving she hadn't learned a damn thing from the first TWO DUI's.

In his letter, Heineman said: "If you sit silently by, I am going to assume that your lack of action is tacit support for increased Medicaid funding and the likely reduction in funding for education." Considering to whom the letter was addressed, I believe this is more than a statement; it is a threat!

Y'know, instead of defunding public education, Heineman could work to close all of those "economic development" holes he helped create in your tax code up there. Or, he could defund the University system, which, incidently, IS NOT a MANDATED public expenditure as is K-12. Or, at the very least, Heineman could work with the new health care law to oversee thriftiness instead of digging in his heels against it. Remember that news of the projected increased Medicaid costs accompanied news that the projections were flawed…

At any rate, thanks for the quote from the lawsuit. I did not know about that ruling and am glad to have it.